Vincenzo Nibali wins Giro d’Italia stage 20 to close in on overall win

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) goes into tomorrow’s final stage of the 2013 Giro d’Italia with an increased lead in the general classification after a spectacular stage victory in snowy conditions on the Tre Clime di Lavaredo.

The Italian was the first of the favourites to attack on the final climb, and was able to ride away from everyone and solo alone to the finish, holding off the Colombian trio of Fabio Duarte (Colombia), Rigoberto Uran (Sky) and Carlos Betancur (Ag2r).

Despite failing to catch Nibali and challenge for the stage win, it was still a successful day for the Colombians, with Duarte registering his best result of his Giro, Uran leapfrogging Cadel Evans (BMC) into second overall, and Betancur taking the white jersey from Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff) and moving up to fifth overall, despite the setback from a mechanical on the penultimate climb.

With the Passo Costalunga, Passo San Pellegrino and Passo Giau all removed due to the weather conditions, it was a quiet day until Nibali’s attack on the final climb, with the favourites all opting for a defensive race.

Four riders made up the break of the day: Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol), Giairo Ermeti (Androni Giocattoli), Yaroslav Popovych (RadioShack-Leopard) and Pavel Brutt (Katusha), with the latter going alone on the penultimate Passo Tre Croci category 2 climb. Here he was caught by Pieter Weening (Blanco), Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Eros Capecchi (Movistar), with the latter breaking free on the final climb.

Here, however, they were all swallowed up, with the weather making for an extraordinary spectacle; a war of attrition with riders visibly at the limit, their panting breath visible in front of their faces in the freezing atmosphere.

Those who suffered most dramatically included Evans, who lost a further one minute and 40 seconds to Nibali, and Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel), who was unable to reward his team for the work put in at the front of the peloton for most of the day, instead falling outside of the top ten at the expense of Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r).

In the mountains classification, Stefano Pirazzi sealed victory with three points on the Passo Tre Croci, while the points classification underwent a shake up with Nibali moving into the lead ahead of Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

However, thanks to points scored in intermediate sprints today (despite the best efforts of Rafael Andriato (Vini Fantini) and his inexplicable challenge), Cavendish needs only 10 points in tomorrow’s stage to reclaim the jersey, so should seal victory comfortably and take a full set of Grand Tour points classification wins.